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October 10, 2007
The Google™ Game
By Tyler Hoelting
Affiliate Manager
CPA Empire
Many of us have played the Google™ PPC game and unfortunately the odds are not in our favor. You are not alone in your quest to beat the odds and find success with Google™ PPC, so it is imperative that you have an advantage before investing your hard earned cash on Boardwalk.
To better understand our chances in the Google world, we must first know the rules of the game. Google has a unique system in place that can allow a PPC advertiser to obtain the top ranking while actually paying less per click than the competition.
• Click prices depend on your Click-Through Rate (CTR). The Click-Through Rate is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). Your ad and keywords each have their own CTRs, unique to your own campaign performance. Weak or irrelevant content pages cost more to be displayed in the sponsored listings.
• Quality Score measures a variety of factors regarding your website, including the length a browsing consumer stays on your site once they have clicked your ad. In general, a higher Quality Score will allow you to bid less on keywords and still achieve high rankings in search results.
• The amount of capital your competition possesses is also a factor that needs to be addressed. Although Google does not use this as a rating for advertisers, it can price you out of the market. Many experienced marketers can identify new competition and in some cases drive up the cost-per-click for a particular keyword, to drive away competitors – even if it means taking a loss for a short period of time.
Now that we understand the variables that identify your overall score it is important to understand how your price per keyword is calculated. I recommend viewing the Google Learning Center and watching a 3 minute audio clip about Ad Ranking. http://services.google.com/awp/en_us/breeze/5310/index.html
In my years as an Affiliate Manager with CPA Empire, I have come across a few tips that will assist you in the Google game. By testing your various ad campaigns and spending the bulk of your monthly ad budget in the early stages, you can improve your chances of success considerably.
Testing:
Many Affiliates try only one ad campaign or bid on a limited number of keywords. Google’s foundation is built on testing and retesting, and they allow PPC marketers to do the same. Don’t get discouraged if the words you thought were big hitters don’t convert for you. Take something from multiple campaign groups and this will allow you to combine all the keywords that actually work for you into one which may be your winning ticket. Google allows you to tweak headlines, ads, domains, and content. Experts understand that even switching one word can influence the outcome of an ad campaign negatively or positively. As your CTR improves you can lower your cost per click and maintain the same ad position.
Go In Big:
A mistake that many affiliates make when they first start with Google is having a limited budget and starting off slow. You are not alone in thinking that increasing your ad budget as dollars come in is the correct thing to do, but this the wrong way to start. Go in big and push your way into the top to improve your CTR. If you are new to AdWords, this technique will actually improve your chance of getting first page assignment. There are two reasons for this.
1. You will find out early if your ad campaign will or will not work for you. It’s better to spend your money early rather than to drag out your promotion.
2. As opposed to starting out with a bang, you’ll find out that by going in slowly with a lower cost per click, your advertisement will be placed further down than your competition. If you go in slow, it may take you weeks before you can build up your CTR, lower your cost for keywords, and be in the same game as your competitors.
With these tips you should be able to maximize your AdWords outcome. See you on the Monopoly board.
Posted by Tom at October 10, 2007 01:30 AM